Trash to Treasure?

Sorry I've been a little M.I.A. these days.   I've got a lot of projects going on and I'm working more and it's keeping me very busy!  Although....I seem to find time to waste get inspired on the website Pinterest. Love it! Obviously!  I've been pining my little heart out for a week or two now! 


Slowly but surely I am getting around to a fancy new kitchen.  By 'new' I mean painting cabinets, building a kitchen island from a free dresser, yadda yadda yadda.    We've been able to update a couple of our appliances, and instead of buying cream that we had, I bought the chrome look- which I love, but the other pieces we have, i.e. the stove and the trash compactor, are still dated and off white.  I am all for mismatching things, but this isn't exactly working for me.  So how am I going to fix this?  Look-y here!

Ugly trash compactor: (Nevermind the ugly kitchen cabinets.  That's my next big project!) 

One acrylic faux pressed tin back-splash piece later and...see all of these cuts?  It should have taken only 3.   I did 6.  Apparently I don't do well subtracting and dividing fractions. 

The new and improved trash compactor!  I'll probably jazz up the little top part of it eventually.  My Silhouette is begging to be used ;)  

Just imagine how great it's going to look with cabinets that have a fresh coat of paint!  I've got to get started on that! 

Finial Fun!

 I wish I could remember where I came across this idea. Just know that it's not original to me and I'd love to give credit where it's due...but can't!  I usually bookmark stuff like this, but didn't this time...sorry!

**Found it!!  I got the inspiration HERE**

Anyways, here's how I turned four tennis balls into curtain rod finials! 

Hello Wilson! 

Sorry to do this to you, but...

Slice an 'X' into it!

I used probably and 8-9 inch square of interior decor fabric that matched the bottom of my curtains.  (Enough to wrap around it completely and tuck snugly into the center.) As I was going this, I decided that a pencil, a crochet hook, a Barbie leg, anything would have felt better doing this than my thumb.  It hurt after the first ball, but I was way too into what I was doing to get up and get a useful tool for the project! 

You should end up with a lovely little ball like this! 

Take the above ball and stick it onto your curtain rod!  

Yay!  No more curtains slipping off the ends!

My curtain rod in my living room is a piece of conduit pipe - it cost me just a few dollars and fits perfectly above my 9 ft wide window!  If I were to purchase an actual curtain rod, I'd be spending WAY too much money on one that size that I probably wouldn't like that well anyway because I'm hanging decked out shower curtains that I got a great deal on and added fabric to the bottom for length but that's another post, so why when I'm on a thrifty-roll would I blow it on a boring rod? 

*deep breath in* 

Eventually I'll paint the rod so it's not so silver in my earthy room....

(I hate this picture.  It's late and the lighting is terrible.  Maybe I'll post a better one tomorrow.)

  

Ooopsy - Spring! Sorry about your timing...

So, I was in a funk this spring and never posted about my Spring Blossom tree!  Now, I've moved onto summer without sharing with you my pretty tree at all...so here's some pictures!

Here's the links again to the other seasons:
Fall Leaves Tree
Winter Snowball Tree
Summer Apple Tree

And here's a brief how-to...I'm not a teacher by nature and don't do this sort of thing well!

Don't sit under the apple tree...

With anyone else but me...
I am WAY behind on my seasonal hall tree!  But I finally got it up-to-date by grabbing my cousin who was in from out of town to help me.  She is an aspiring artist, so I could totally trust her and she did great!  I cut out all the pieces, made the starch concoction, gave her a brief how-to and let her do it!
Here's how it turned out :)

I think it's really cute, very happy, and will last me through most of the fall! Yay for apple trees!

Here's the links to my
Winter Snowball tree
Fall Leaves tree

I just realized I never posted my Spring Blossom tree - well...stay tuned!

Finished dresser turned kitchen island!

Wahoo!!!  It's finished!!

And it cost me less than $100!!

Here's the link to the before pictures and a few along the way, so that I don't overwhelm the post :) 

I am so pleased with how it turned out!  After weeks of deciding on the kind of top that I wanted and then deciding that it was WAY out of my price range, I put my head together with a wonderful man from church who is  a carpenter and this is what we came up with!  I love it!  It is pine, so it's a little soft, but I've polyeurothaned it at least 5 times and let it cure for several days before attaching it, and it seems to be just fine! Yippee!!

A close up of the front with my mis-matched knobs!  I am repeating this sort of thing with my kitchen cabinets that I hope to start painting very soon :)

After some thought, we decided to make the top several inches wider than the island itself because it would have been a tight squeeze on the backside to fit two people. Conveniently, I now have room for a towel rack tucked away on the underside.

I added some cute gingerbread supports to help the backside of the top, and a washable 'tile' board since the kids (and hubby) will be eating there and probably kicking it and getting it dirty.  Not that I see a need to, but I could use dry erase markers on it, so that might be fun :)  My DH put casters on it, so it can roll if I need it to!  They lock, thankfully, because Levi enjoys pushing it around. 

Here it is! All that's left is finding a couple of inexpensive counter stools!  I have to finish this project as inexpensively as I can - it's a game, ya know?
I think it's happy in my kitchen :)  I know I am :)

I shared this post at 

   

also HERE  (I couldn't get the button at this blog to work.  I'm new at this!)

Be sure to click the button (and link) and get lots of great ideas from lots of other wonderful people!  There are so many things to look at and get inspiration from! 

Kitchen island

I am in the process of making a kitchen island for...well...my kitchen.    

I put a call out on Facebook for a dresser if anyone was getting rid of one and voila!  A friend of mine gave me an old changing table that she was willing to get rid of because her kids are long out of diapers! Yay!!! 

The evening I got it, I started demolition - because I was SO EXCITED! I ripped the changing pad supports off, took the knobs off, and made sure I could get the top off because I wanted a nice BIG top on it for my kitchen.

Levi decided that he wanted to help me rip it apart! Such a big helper :) 

I next sanded it down because it was slick veneer covered particle board.  It needed something to stick to.  My primer wouldn't even stick to it unless I sanded it.  I hate sanding.  I guess it's worth it now...  

I had Mike attach some casters so that I could move it around my kitchen if needed - Good Call! Except that Levi knows it moves and pushes it everywhere unless the wheels are locked.
I also popped the back off because it was like a thin piece of construction paper.  Okay, maybe it was a little stronger than that, but not much.  

Measure and measure and measure and then wonder how in the heck did I measure wrong???

 It all worked out.  

I was going to do a bead-board backing on it, but after getting so steamed at the home store because of the customer service I received (or didn't...I mean, why can't I get any help around here?!! I've got an 18 month old with me and I need some help!), I ended up with this faux tile backsplash. It is slick, it wipes off easily (which I'll need with the two young kids), and it can be written on with dry erase markers...perfect! It won't be seen much because the pattern I painted is so distracting :) 

 I finally settled on my design.  My mom has this vintage box that she keeps the crayons in at her house.  I really like the pattern, so I took a picture, and printed it out. I then drew a grid on it and then with chalk I drew the grid on my cabinet.  

Then I took a really really soft lead pencil and drew the image onto the cabinet.

Then I started painting!!

I have this really cute striped cabinet in my kitchen already that I matched the colors of with my paint swatch wheel and headed to the Home Depot and bought sample paint containers in each color.  I love that I can do that!  It makes me happy and is working out great for my project! 

So here is where I am so far!  I've moved it to my kitchen, unfinished, to decide if I want to distress the cabinet, or tone it down a little.  It's beautiful and I love it, but it's a little wild...but it matched my striped cabinet perfect...I don't know what to do. 

I'm also anxiously awaiting by top!  A dear man from church is a carpenter and is building a top for it!  How sweet is that?!  Very sweet :)  I can't wait to have it completely finished!  I'll keep you posted!

Did you come here first?  Here's a link to my finished product!

Foyer update!

Remember ME???

Well, My leaves got ripped off!!

But I turned into THIS: (Yay!!)

Complete with shiny silver snow balls and three red birds :)

More to come as I find the time! I'm a busy girl these days!

My Foyer

Here's the latest thing I've done to my home!

I was finally ready to beautify my bedroom, but then decided to vamp up my foyer. I decided that this is the first place and first impression of my home and why should it be blah? I want it to be fabulous like the rest and make people feel happy and comfortable, instead of awkward. So I decided on a whim to buy some paint and have at it! Here's how it went:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Isn't it fun!!? I grew a tree in my hall!

I've been wanting for a long time to try starching fabric to a wall, but couldn't figure out what I wanted to do exactly....and then I thought A-Ha!! And conveniently, my cousin who is an aspiring artist of sorts was hanging out, so I had her grab some chalk and help me draw it on one afternoon.... surprise Mike! He, as usual, had no idea what I was doing. He usually doesn't like surprises, but enjoys this one :)

The idea is that since the tree is painted on, and the leaves are starched on and removable and re-usable, I will change my tree with the seasons! This winter I'll take these down and make it wintery with snow balls and such, maybe ornaments or something. In Spring I'll make it have little bright greet buds and pretty pink blossoms! This, clearly, is my Autumn tree. It's so close, that I am willing it here - I can feel it! The air has already been cooler! You all can thank me later :)

This is the view from the top of the stairs. (Notice that I ripped the chair railing out! It was pretty rewarding taking my little crow-bar and snapping off the planks :) Yeah, it was a gooood time. Now, there's nothing wrong with chair rails, they just don't fit into my taste - except my kitchen, presently - and it seemed a little silly in my hallway. Don't hate me because I hate chair rails! Ha!)

Since it's by my front door, I added some really cute hooks on the banister of the stairs right inside the doors for guests to hang their coats or purses. It used to be that they came in and it got a little awkward when they had to toss their coats on the rail, or on the floor of the steps. I like them a lot too!

You can also hang your favorite princess bag up out of your baby brother's reach :)

More goodness from the rest of the hallway to come :)